Suprasegmentals

Channel Island English is characterized by features on the suprasegmental level (stress, intonation) which sound ‘foreign’ and which are either caused by an influence from Norman French or can at least be explained originally in terms of non-natives using English. Such features are most common with older people who are still regular speakers of Norman French. One may come across unusual stress patterns as for example in Guernseyman ['gз:nzi'mæn] , educated  or grandfather . Alternatively, the difference between stressed and unstressed syllables may be less marked, with the use of secondary stresses on normally unstressed syllables as in potatoes , tomatoes  , English .